Labour can also try to weld together a coalition, but they'll have to cooperate with several parties to make up for their substantial seat deficit.

It's possible one party could try to govern from the minority and win support vote by vote. But that'd make for a pretty weak government.

And a weak government is not what the U.K. needs right now. It's in the middle of negotiating its way out of the European Union, and the terms of the deal could have wide-ranging impacts on the country.